


by nightlights the children pray

by hoars



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Stiles Stilinski, Either Or, F/M, Family Feels, M/M, Mpreg/Adoption, Running Away, Scott Went Crazy, Ten Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-21
Updated: 2012-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-19 05:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/569593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoars/pseuds/hoars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott leaves for ten years and comes back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	by nightlights the children pray

**Author's Note:**

> Set immediately after Fright Night aka the one where they get trapped in the school with the Alpha and Scott and Allison break up.

 

(one)

Scott leaves town and sticks a note on the fridge, “I’m sorry.”

(two)

He runs runs runs and loses his mind.

(three)

Hunger _thirst_ trees _cave_ rabbit _people_ stream

(four)

Scott doesn’t remember how he escapes the fugue his senses sent him spiraling into, only the terror of having lost two years.

(five)

He lives in a city, tiny place he shares with four others. His senses are dull here, too many smells, sounds, tastes that all carry hints of pollution.

(six)

Scott runs into another werewolf and at twenty-two, he’s ready for the guidance he ignored at sixteen.

(seven)

He has control now and doesn’t shift, even when he gets mugged.

(eight)

At the temp agency, he meets a woman, Alice, and loses himself in her.

(nine)

He’s making her breakfast, smiling, when his senses explode and life hurts after that.

(ten)

He goes to sleep in Alice’s bed and later wakes up on the outskirts of Beacon Hills, unable to remember how he got there.

Beacon Hills lights up exactly how he remembers and the relief he feels is only matched when he visits his mom and she squeezes him until he can’t breathe, but it’s good and he doesn’t let her go for awhile.

“Scott.” Mom whispers, her eyes wet and mouth smiling and he loves and hates himself for abandoning her. He kept her safe, but he can find sadness in her mouth, the wrinkles by her eyes and her gray hair.

“ _Mom_.”

She has the postcards he’s sent as often as he could on the fridge and as amazed as he is that she kept them, displays them, he’s drawn to the decade’s worth of photos tacked next to them. His mom is the best and holds his hand tight when he moves to better inspect the glossy rectangles.

Stiles and the Sheriff, the mayor shaking the Sherriff’s hand and Stiles still looks familiar and Scott wonders if it meant the Alpha is dead.

Stiles and Mom, showing off his diploma and wide grins. He smiles proud of his friend and sad at the changes he can already see. Stiles’ standing tall, a butterfly bandage on his cheek and just, _happy_.

The photos jump a little to a wedding. Mom and the Sheriff together. His mom is beautiful in light purple and he hopes Mr. Stilinski had been a good date, that she hadn’t been lonely.

“Stiles got married. I’m not sure if you ever met his husband.” She taps a second photo, bright lights covering the man’s face, Stiles’ face untouched as his laughter was caught forever. “Do you remember Derek Hale?” His heart freezes and his surprise comes out in an embarrassing sound. “Yeah, it was a surprise to us too.” Her smile is still strong and he takes her strength and uses it to breathe. “This picture actually happened first.” Stiles from a distance in graduation robes, the sun covering their faces and a man in a leather jacket, embracing.

The rest of the photos are of a little girl.

“Their daughter.” His mom says and after that she’s silent, understanding what Scott can’t even choke out.

000

He’s on the Hales’ porch, in awe of how beautiful the house looks, when the door opens. It’s a curly haired guy that smells wary and maybe ten years ago, he would have demanded to be let in but ten years is a long time.

“I’m here to pay my respects to Alpha Hale and his family.” Exactly how a trespasser should to an Alpha’s Beta. He wonders if the entire pack lives in the house and tries counting the voices and footsteps.

“Come in. I’ll alert my alpha.” And the guy goes searching for Derek, leaving Scott with a room suddenly full of werewolves.

He thinks he knows them from school, but it was a lifetime ago and he isn’t sure about anything from ten years ago but Stiles and the ache of Allison.

“Scott.” Derek isn’t any less menacing.

The hairs on his neck prick up and Scott has to stifle his whine at Derek’s imposing presence. He wants to submit to Derek, be welcomed and have a pack but he’s a nomad, an omega, and Scott can’t rebuild his life here. Here hurts too much. Feels too much like failure.

“Congratulations to you and your mate.” He says instead.

He’d been pulled from his new life at the birth of their daughter, he’s sure. To pay his respects and he doesn’t want to think about why Derek’s pack life would affect his life in any context. It sets warning bells off in his head, about what must’ve broke him from his temporary madness – the addition of an alpha-mate in the pack.

Derek tilts his head. Sizing him up, probably calculating the odds of Scott going berserk and hurting his pack. An alpha’s duty was to his pack first and foremost. If Derek thought there was a chance Scott would go feral, Derek would rip his throat out and wouldn’t even feel apologetic.

“Someone taught you.” Derek says finally.

“Yeah. It took me awhile to,” Scott gestures. To let someone teach me, to get into a place to be taught. He clears his throat, awkward.

Derek doesn’t say anything for a long moment. His eyebrows thoughtful, a wince crossing his face before he sighs and treats Scott like a beta instead of an omega. “My Beta, Isaac.” He introduces the curly haired guy who opened the door. “Erica and Boyd.” A blonde woman with a red mouth Scott can’t help but notice and a dark skinned man with muscles the size of Scott’s head. “Maybe you remember Lydia and Jackson?” And his old classmates are right there. Pretty Lydia as stunning as ever and Jackson handsome still even with claw marks working their way from his throat down past the collar of his shirt. “Danny is upstairs with Stiles and Sophia.” What Derek doesn’t have to say is Danny and Stiles are human, otherwise they’d be greeting Scott as well. “I’ll let Stiles know you’re here.” Derek turns and heads upstairs, the werewolves in the living room pressing in on Scott.

Out of politeness, he doesn’t listen in on Derek’s conversation; instead he keeps his senses trained completely on Derek’s pack. There was chance they could start a fight with him, for dominance or as a test of his control. He doesn’t know. His mentor never expected Scott to be in the company of five werewolves without an alpha present.

“Where you been, McCall?” Jackson breaks the silence, the rest of the pack’s eyes flying upwards, no doubt towards a conversation Scott is carefully not listening to. Stiles can turn Scott away and his word would be followed like it was law as alpha-mate.

“Chicago.” He twists his mouth into some semblance of a smile. “That I can remember anyways.”

“Glad to hear it. I hope you fucked actual wolves.” Lydia doesn’t even look at him, anger coming off her in waves. He probably deserved that, which is why he isn’t asking about Allison. Lydia and Jackson were human when he left and now they weren’t, it didn’t take a genius to guess the alpha, an alpha not Derek if the deep gouges in their skins are anything to go by, changed them.

He can only guess why the others accepted Derek’s bite. Being a werewolf was a curse. He couldn’t be himself around anyone, always hiding what he was for his safety and the safety of the humans constantly crowding him.

“Mommy and Daddy are coming.” Erica sings out softly.

Scott forces himself to relax, ignoring the way his body tenses with each step Stiles takes down the stairs. Danny is first down the stairs, Jackson at his side instantly, putting his body between Scott and Danny. It would hurt if Scott couldn’t smell mate in Danny’s scent. Jackson had no reason to trust a strange wolf with his mate. Scott would have made the same call.

Danny looked curiously at him and Scott could literally see the moment Danny considered him unimportant, turning his body completely to Jackson and touching his arm lightly. Danny and Jackson didn’t matter though.

Stiles was still wearing plaid and jeans and Scott can’t help but smile slightly. Stiles can’t be completely different from the little boy that convinced Scott to eat mud pies in kindergarten or the fifth grader who held his hand when dad left for the final time or the teenager who sat with Scott for hours when his mom died or the guy who stuck by Scott even when he tried to kill him. His hair is still short, Stiles never the type to fuss with hair when he had enough to do in the mornings like remember his meds. There are no obvious scars or injuries to his person, except for matching rings of scar tissue Scott can see poking past his sleeves. Any other scars, like the alpha bite mark making Stiles’ alpha-mate, are hidden underneath his clothes.

Behind Stiles, in Derek’s arms, Scott can hear baby gibberish. The little girl catches his attention. She’s incredibly fair skinned, her brown eyes popping in contrast and her dark brown pigtails accented by purple bows. The little girl was dressed in a white shirt and purple tutu. She was cute and smelt strongly of the alpha pair, Scott’s wolf recognized her as the next alpha and he wanted to offer his life to her. 

Derek steps off the stairs and goes to stand by his Beta, keeping the little girl happy by bouncing her in his arms, his glare steady on Scott. Scott swallows, his mouth dry. Derek is alpha. Derek’s mate and cub are in the same room as Scott and if he isn’t fucking perfect on his control, Derek will end him. No more Scott.

“Hey.” He greets Stiles and wants to hit himself.

The blonde woman, Erica, snorts and she can just shut up. How do you begin to tell the best friend you abandoned after trying to kill him and your girlfriend because a crazy alpha ordered him to? How do you say “I’m sorry, but I was losing my mind and I didn’t want to hurt anyone even by accident and please forgive me?”

“Hey.” Stiles says back. His face is smooth, stony. He probably picked the poker face up from Derek.

They stare at each other for a long minute. Sweat begins to gather on Scott’s neck and god, he should have booked it when Derek acknowledged he was on his territory. Stiles hated him. Stiles never wanted to see him again and Scott ruined that for him by showing up on his doorstep. Fuck.

“Yeah, I think that’s long enough.” Stiles breaks into a sudden smile and hugs Scott.

_Hugs him._

Scott is so surprised, it takes him a few seconds before he’s hugging the human back hard enough to squeeze the breath out of the other man. He may or may not be crying but as long as no one else mentions it, it never happened. Scott has missed Stiles a lot. The other boy always made things brighter and Scott’s life better. If Stiles had been with Scott, Scott is sure he never would have lost his mind to his wolf for two years or needed a mentor to begin with because Stiles would have figured that shit out.

Scott doesn’t release Stiles until he hears Derek growl a warning and even then, it’s hard to remove himself far enough from Stiles’ space to keep the alpha werewolf at bay.

“What have you been up to?” Scott asks, wanting to know about his friend lest Stiles asks Scott what misery he’s caused himself.

“Oh, you know. Graduated, mated, went to college, got a job as Oracle of Werewolves, got married, and had a daughter.” Stiles said nonchalantly. “You kind of missed a lot, best bud.”

“I’d love to hear all about it.” Scott says, and it doesn’t escape him when the pack calms and Boyd, Lydia and Jackson leave the living room.

“But first, you have to meet someone.” Stiles smiles and it’s soft and so full of the love Scott sees on his mom’s face. “Derek, come here. Isaac will rip Scott’s arms out of their sockets if Scott even thinks about hurting our baby girl or me.” And wow, Stiles’ happy inflection didn’t even change. Apparently, Stiles was a natural at being alpha-mate. “Scott,” Derek hands Stiles the little girl, glaring at Scott. “Meet Sophia. Sophia, meet your Uncle Scott. Scott’s kind of a dummy, and Daddy doesn’t really like him but I promise he’s an okay dude.”

And he holds the little girl out to him, expecting Scott to take her.

Sophia and Scott stare at each other for a long moment, the air charged and he can’t. He’s not a part of the Hale pack, he can’t be. Ignore that he felt the birth of the alpha pair’s child, that he strives for the alpha pair’s approval and their praise fills him with warmth that he’s craved from his father and never received.

Her tiny little hands reach out for him and he’s lost, pulled under.

He reaches for her.

Ooo

“I get it.” Stiles says. “Why you left.”

They’re sitting on the porch steps, sharing coffee.

Stiles isn’t looking at him but at the woods. Scott is thankful his friend isn’t a werewolf or else the man would be able to hear the painful thumps of Scott’s heart because this is a conversation they need to have before anything can be better than okay. Then again, Stiles runs with werewolves. Is their alpha. Scott doubts he’s fooling Stiles at all.

“I was pissed for a long time, but” Stiles shrugs. “Derek explained it to me when I could finally stand people saying your name without throwing things.” That hurts to know a little. Stiles had always been a bright, happy guy. Scott has known him since kindergarten and in all that time, he’s only known Stiles to get that upset once. To know he was the cause… “Allison, she was your pretty much your mate. She broke up with you and it must’ve felt like the world was ending on top of everything else.” Stiles shrugs again and takes a sip. “You went crazy. A sick wolf will break from the pack.”

“It doesn’t make it okay.” Scott says because it’s _true_.

He abandoned his pack when they needed him most. He abandoned _Stiles_. Scott hadn’t know if Derek was alive, been convinced the other werewolf had been dead actually. Stiles had been a target and Scott left him with no protection. The amount of danger Scott had put Stiles in was unforgivable.

“It kinda does, dude.” Stiles turns his head towards him and smiles a little. “Mates are everything. They’re reason and common sense. A source of strength and serenity. They’re the world. And to lose one is like cutting off your arm and leg and being told to walk around.”

Stiles gets quiet and Scott can’t speak past the lump in his throat, the tears at the corner of his eyes. Allison is a hurt that flares unexpectedly when he’s at the grocery store, looking at laundry detergent or when he’s on his way to work and passes a coffee shop.

“If I lost Derek,” Stiles is so quiet now, Scott can only hear him because of his enhanced hearing. “I’d die. I know that sounds dramatic and Twilightesque but,” he shook his head and took another gulp. “I wouldn’t be able to live with the memory of us, knowing life was better and easier with him in it and there was no way to get him back, just to see him. So I get it. I do.”

Scott wants to say thank you, but he can’t get words out. Stiles leans against him heavily and he rests his head on his shoulder, shaking and crying.

He feels like he returned home, like how he felt when he knocked an his mom's door and she opened it and hugged him. He feels like a weight has been lifted off, that because his family still loves him, the fear and guilt he's been carrying around are disappearing. That because the alpha-mate is offering comfort, he isn't beyond redeeming. 

It's a good feeling, one that would make sticking around worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles as the Oracle (Barbara Gordon) is my head canon for when he gets older. Just saying.


End file.
